Alex Thane: Song of Sparks
by Victor Woods
Summary: Based 7 years after the events of the Percy Jackson series a new hero emerges and has to save everything form a horrifying evil. The story follows Alex Thane as he set off on an adventure finding new friends and losing some along the way, he will meet some of the famous Heroes of Olympus as they try to help him along his way.
1. Chapter 1

**Before I start i'd like to thank everyone who help put these first few chapters together. First off I'd like to thank ARrze1 who helped edit and give myself some feedback before this chapters release; Empirestateskulk i'd like to thank you for getting me into the many books of Percy Jackson and inspiring me to write this fan fiction; A thank you to all those who helped with my terrible spelling and grammar and another thank you to my friends and family for being so supportive.**

**I'll be releasing a chapter every week if all goes well and I hope this popularity for this fan fiction grows as well as its readers so you can all share the story so many of my friends have come to love.**

**Also please note that this is based 7 years after the events of The Last Olympian and follows a different hero (still includes some memorable characters from the PJ series).**

**Anyway I've kept you reading this long enough, please continue on and remember to comment your opinion and feedback on ANYTHING... Just try to keep it constructive :)**

**-Victor Woods**

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**Chapter 1- Bad Dreams and Cold Adventures**

For your average 17 year old a terrible dream was probably expected and was often overlooked or even forgotten when they woke up… but then again I was everything but average. My long and sometimes overly exaggerated adventures started in every way I thought they would not, and even though I was one for exciting adventures the death-defying ones were always the ones I tried to avoid. But other than my sense for an exciting journey I was almost unexceptional in every way… well at least on the outside. I was the kind of kid who sat alone at lunches and was only seen hanging around 1 or 2 people in his spare time, mostly quiet, yet intentionally, that was the kind of person I was. I found out when I was young that if you were able to keep to yourself and have as little association with anybody but a few selected individuals you could avoid most troubles others would normally encounter; bullied, heartbroken, fights; Never happened while I was at school. But that all had to end one way or another and by year 12 I was about to learn an even more important lesson; Nothing good lasts forever…

I stood alone, trembling, in a large dark cave. The walls covered in slime and frost, the floor knee-deep in snow. There was no sign of the source of light that let me see those brief details of the cave. I knew this was obviously a dream and I seemed accepted that at the start of all my visions, the denial of reality. Now I look back and I realize how wrong I was to even think that.

Suddenly and without warning a slithery, sharp voice boomed echoing across the cave.

"_Ah, you have returned!_" It shouted.

"_The prophet of death, being of sin and the longing of hate, and yet they still will follow you._" As the man, or what sounded like a man spoke the floor and walls trembled and I was forced to stand in fear.

I tried pulling myself away from where the voice was coming from but my lower torso was frozen and I found myself unable to move like I was rooted to the ground.

The voice continued ignoring my struggle. "_Over the following days you will meet my disciples and will inevitably join my enemies, but know that you will never be safe. I will hunt you, manipulate you and devour every last hope you have, and in the end you will betray the ones you call friends, so if you wish to live, you will do as I ask and follow your mark._" As he said those last words a marking burned across my forearm, I yelled in pain as the symbol slowly appeared. It showed the letters _OBITUS _burnt slowly across my arm glowing yellow and steaming. I grabbed my arm yelling in pain as blood trickled off my fingertips leaving patterns in the snow.

"_This is your warning, be faithful and you will keep the powers I have granted you._"

"_Now wake Alexander Thane_" it whispered "_When your friends come, remember what I have said!_" Black flames ignited and burned around me as I was trapped helplessly in the center until a final sea of dark fire hit me and everything went black.

I woke with a start to the sound of a bang on my bedroom window. My bed sheets were covered in sweat and my black hair was soaked and covered over my eyes. I pulled myself out of my bed and moved to inspect the window. Outside the apartment, snow littered the roads of High Street, I liked the view and it helped that I lived on the 4th story of the apartment so I could see Boston for miles.

Sure enough Ryan was standing on the curb looking up at the window with a rock in hand ready to throw again. Ryan had always been a good shot so I wasn't surprised that he was able to hit my window or that it wasn't broken. I had known Ryan for nearly a year and within that time we had become good friends and not to mention one of my only friends. He was shorter than me, about my chin height and was well built with scruffy blackish-brown hair that looked mostly bedraggled and his dark green eyes the color of the seaweed and a rough square features.

Ryan English had joined the same school as me just after I had and we had mostly become friends because of the complete opposite reasons we should have, we had barely anything in common. If there was any trait we shared it was to be adventurous, Ryan and myself had always liked exploring all kinds of weird and old buildings that lay around Boston and we would often spend a whole day wandering the streets finding shortcuts and new boulevards that let us travel the city with ease and occasionally getting in all sorts of trouble with usually police or concerned citizens but when Ryan wasn't at the beach surfing (which was 70% of the time) we would always be exploring.

I opened the window to see what Ryan wanted. We usually walked to school together considering he only lived a couple of blocks down from the apartments but I was pretty sure I wasn't late, glancing at my alarm clock school didn't start for another couple of hours. I unholstered the latches on my window and slid it open.

"Yes? What do you want Ryan?" I asked wearily, still a bit shaken up from the nightmare.

"Hey Alex, are you all right?" He asked, probably seeing the beads of sweat running off my forehead.

"Yeah I'm fine." I said wiping the sweat from my face. "I just had a rough night, that's all, bad dreams."

Ryan's face turned strung and twisted. "We need to talk, there's something you need to know." As he stressed his words the hot air from his breath formed a light cloud of mist that hung into the air.

I sensed his urgency but what could be so important he had to wake me up 5 in the morning?

We decided to get inside and I quickly tidied myself up. While doing so I realized it was the first day of the winter holidays so thankfully no school, but that still didn't explain why Ryan was here so early. I thought about my dream, the dark cave and the razor voice. '_The prophet of death, being of sin and the longing of hate, and yet they still will follow you._' What had it meant I wondered? It was just a dream, but why had it felt so real and where had I seen the cavern, the man had said that I had returned. Before I could ponder more on my thoughts Ryan started knocking on the front door.

"Hey, you there?" he shouted.

"Hold on!" I yelled back.

I quickly put on some black jeans and a red leather jacket and went to the door. I tried my best to be quiet until I realized no one else was in the house but myself today. I opened the front door and Ryan quickly popped in shivering from the cold.

"So what's this about waking me up at 5 in the morning?" I asked, slightly annoyed that I didn't get to sleep-in on the first day of holidays.

"In a sec, let's have breakfast first..." he said rubbing his hands together still looking distracted or maybe he was distracted from his distraction, Ryan wasn't exactly good at staying focused.

I sighed; making Ryan breakfast in the mornings was a regular routine since his parents usually left early for work and his cooking skill were not that great (trust me, the eggs he cooks always end up tasting terrible) and I didn't really mind anyway, Ryan was a good friend and it wasn't too much effort on my part and considering my mom was out, no one could really yell at me for inviting him in so early.

I didn't have a big family, my mom didn't have any siblings and my grandparents died when I was young, as for my dad's side… well I never met my dad. When I was young, just after I was born he left my mom and me with absolutely nothing and no trace of him ever existing except for few photos in the lounge room of mom standing with him at the top of some sort of mountain in Quebec, they looked like a normal couple arms round each other's waists, smiling. My Dad had shoulder length black hair and a handsome face, he was well-built, tall and dark colored skin, a cropped beard and a black and blue pinstripe suit that fit is strange aura well. On the day he left there was no final argument or slammed door, he was just… gone. As I got older I thought I had a good idea of what happened, I believed my Mom knew why he left, that's why she never filed a missing persons report or anything but she never gave me a full story, always half answers with some yes/no excuse.

He seemed like a nice guy in the photo and when mom spoke of him, he sounded polite and sensible and she would always say things like 'you look so much like him' and 'you have his golden eyes and black hair'. Sometimes I thought if he was so polite and sensible why would he abandon his family, especially without telling anyone beforehand and whenever I brought the subject up with mom she would shrug it off and divert the question once again. As for my mom, she was always working at the local bank and over the years of single parenting, creases had formed under her grey eyes and her once dirty blond hair had started to go the same color as her eyes.

At the moment she was in New York on a business meeting and was hopefully going to get a promotion to manager of the bank she worked in. We weren't poor but we were always low on money and there were nights when food was slim. 'This could change everything' she would say, I hoped it would and for all her faults in parenting I still loved her, and she was the only person I had left.

"You're burning the bacon." Ryan said, pointing at the stove. I was so lost in thought I had forgotten about it.

"Damn!" I shouted, quickly taking them off the pan and placing them on the plates.

The apartment we lived in was made up of 5 rooms; my moms, mine, the lounge room, the kitchen and the bathroom. The walls were painted a light blue and every room had comfy carpet except the kitchen which was plastic like the floor you have in a science lab. I served the food and we both sat down and started eating. Thankfully I hadn't burned the bacon too much, and according to Ryan it was really good. As we finished eating Ryan broke the silence.

"What was the dream about?" he asked. I thought about brushing it off, it was nothing, but I felt as if he deserved to know and he did seemed worried I had a rough night, it looked like he had one to; his black hair was uncombed as usual, looking like he just got out of bed but only now did I realize the dark circles around his bloodshot eyes and how dry and cracked his lips were.

I sighed and told him about the voice, about the _OBITUS _burned into my arm and what he said about me betraying my friends and being the 'prophet of death'. At the mention of death Ryan flinched and started fiddling with the small beads he wore round his necklace. When I was finished he just nodded a couple of times and studied me as if I was foreign to him.

"I mean it's just a dream, isn't it?" I asked, how it could be anything but a dream.

"Yeah…" He said with a delayed smile. "Of course it is."

I nodded, and yet it seemed like he was trying to reassure himself more that he was me.

We cleaned up the kitchen and headed off down to the bus stop. The snow had gotten heavier and was now ankle deep, the bus shelter was covered in snow and the seats were iced over so we decided to stand instead.

"What did you want to tell me before?" I asked only remembering his panicked state this morning.

"Huh?" I realized I'd interrupted him in deep thought. "Oh that, don't worry about it. It's cool."

"All right then." I said dropping the subject. He was right about one thing, it was very cool, the temperature seemed to be dropping very quickly and I wondered if it got any colder we would turn into ice cubes, I could imagine the bus driver pulling up to find two frozen teenagers on the side of the road.

"By the way, where are we going?" Ryan had pulled me out of the apartment so fast I hadn't even had time to ask where we were headed.

"I want to go see a friend who lives in New London, I hope you don't mind." He replied. Ryan had a habit of being odd but then again we both did. Both Ryan and I had ADHD and dyslexia so I guess that was another thing we did have in common even if it wasn't entirely the best thing to have in common. I agreed to go and see Ryan's friend as long as he bought me a slushy at one of the 7/11's near his friend house and paid for my bus ticket. Finally the bus pulled up and we boarded taking a ticket from the machine and sitting in the back row.

This time Ryan broke the silence. "The dream you had, have you had it before?" Once he was finished he sunk back down into his chair.

"I think so, I remember the place. The cave I mean and the voice-" Ryan cut me off.

"-but your now sure where or when?" he mumbled.

"Yeah, how did you know that?" I replied dazzled that he knew what I was about to say.

"Just a guess." He pleaded innocently. "Anyway…" he said changing the subject quickly.

We talked about other topics for the rest of the way, making me forget about the weird questions about my dream. The bus ride took forever, I never realized how far New London was from Boston but the trip made up for its length with the view. The countryside was amazing and over the luscious green grass were herds of cows and sheep being steered by men on horses with cowboy hats like you see in the movies but as soon as we got back on the highway all that was gone, replaced by a large cityscape.

Finally after an hour and a half of I-spy the bus pulled to a stop just off the coast. In the distance you could see fairies pulling off to take tourists on whale watching. The town looked a lot like Boston, maybe not as grey, but all the buildings looked the same just more yellow. We got off the bus and started walking into the town which was lined with stores and more tourists. I had never been to New London before, only once or twice had I visited New York on a school tour but that was furthest I had ever really been.

We passed into one of the 7/11's and like promised Ryan bought both of us slushies and we continued walking down the curvy roads that lined New London. By the time we reached our destination we had almost finished our frozen drinks and had put them into Ryan's bag.

"This is it." He said, stopping in front of a half destroyed apartment building.

The building was 2 stories tall and looked like one of those old horror houses you saw in cheesy T.V shows complete with a _Do not Enter _sign on the door frame. A number of windows were broken and had been boarded up completely and there were a number of holes in the roof like someone had attacked it with needle. The black wood looked particularly charred and rotten and the massive porch at the front was deteriorating.

"You have got to be kidding me, this thing is wreaked. Why would anyone want to live here?" As if to show my point, the _Do not Enter_ sign fell off the front door and turned to dust as it hit the wooden porch.

"I guess it is a bit old." said Ryan, now observing the dust that lay on the floorboard more closely.

"Just a little." I smirked.

"C'mon." Ryan said, moving up the steps to the apartment. "I'm sure this is it."

Cautiously I followed, only now realizing that no snow lay within 10 yards of the apartment. Just as I was about to mention it, Ryan knocked on the door.

The door slowly creaked open as if the wind had pushed it, revealing no one.

"Okay…." I said "That's creepy."

"Come In!" An unknown girl's voice echoed down from the hallway of the apartment.

Ryan slowly entered the apartment and I followed.

The house was amazing. Sure from the outside it looked like junk but this was brilliant. The place lit with an orange glow from the chandelier that hung from the roof, in the lounge room there was 3 couches lined in a 'U' shape surrounding a fireplace. The walls and floorboards were polished on red wood that gave a very homely feel and the floor was covered with what looked like a tiger skin carpet in the centre of the room.

The walls were lined with paintings of all different things; a black flying Pegasus, another was of a huge flying battleship with a dragon head at the prow of the vessel and the next of the empire state building with lightning and storm cast around it. But most of them were of a teenager who wore an orange shirt inscribed with _Camp-Half Blood_ and blue jeans, he had black swept hair and intense green eyes like Ryan's and in his hand he held a long glowing sword. In another painting he looked older, maybe 17 or 18, arm wrapped round a blond curly haired girl who was around the same height as him; she had grey eyes and the same orange shirt. The one thing I noticed more than anything was that they both wore the same necklace as Ryan, except they both had 10 or 11 different beads on theirs whereas Ryan only had 4.

"Alexander Thane." The same voice from girl I had heard before appeared from behind me and startled, I quickly turned to see her.

She looked about the same age as the boy in the pictures but the aura around her made her feel much older. She wore a white t-shirt and jeans with paint splotches on the front and her red hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her pretty but familiar face was covered completely in freckles. Her green misty eyes studied me as I did the same back and was sure I had seen her before.

"Rachel!" Ryan shouted breaking both our concentration. "What are you doing here, I thought I was meeting-"

"There was a change of plan." the girl apparently named Rachel said quickly, turning to him. "We need to talk about the camp and about…" she paused, glancing at me.

"I know, I know." He said slumping into one of the leather couches. "By the way nice setup I never really liked the cave, to creepy."

Before Rachel could respond, I cut in. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

She looked at me carefully then looked sternly at Ryan. "You haven't told him, have you?" she said angrily.

"The right opportunity didn't come up." He shrugged. "I thought you could tell him, y'know being the Oracle and all."

At this stage I was really confused; a red-headed 'Oracle' who lived in an abandoned house and this wasn't even what he was meant to be telling me about, why couldn't anything be simple with Ryan?

There was silence and finally Rachel sat down in one of the couches.

"Take a seat." she said, gesturing to the couch opposite her.

As I sat down I observed the stunning room again, trying to make sense of this.

"Look, you're obviously pretty confused and I can understand that so I'll try to explain what I can." Rachel said in a soothing voice.

"Thanks." I said half-heartedly under my breath.

She gave a weak smile but it died out just as quickly as it had appeared.

"Alex." She said softly. "You are a Half-Blood."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2- Bad Prophecies and Monsters**

After about 3 cups of coffee and about an hour of explaining I was finally starting to understand what Rachel and Ryan were talking about.

This is what I got from the conversation;

Greek gods were real (that pretty much went over my head).

Rachel could tell the future (and spew green stuff according to Ryan).

I was a Half-Blood (Rachel still hadn't explained that in detail yet other that I was some sort of _demi-god_).

I was in danger of some kind (a lot).

Other than that everything else made no sense.

"So 'I'm a god?" I said unconvinced.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "No, you are only half a god, we've been going over this for about an hour now."

Okay so maybe I didn't 'exactly' understand what they were talking about but at least I was trying, got to give me credit for that.

"We both are." Ryan cut in, which didn't seem to calm down Rachel whose head went face down into her hands.

"Our parents, my Dad and your dad are both gods." Ryan continued.

"We have the same dad?" I asked now again confused trying to keep up with this.

"No… well maybe, I don't know. You can never be sure until you are chosen by your parents."

Wait what… "No, this can't be right my Dads gone, you know that." I said getting up from my chair. "Ryan if this is some sort of joke, it's in very poor taste." I didn't like people talking about what happened with my dad, especially making fun about it, but I could see Ryan was trying to tread carefully about what he was going to say next.

"No more jokes Alex, I need to stress how serious this is." He said in a flat tone.

"Your… Dad, he is obviously very powerful for you to stay hidden this long. For him to be protecting you like this, you must be very special." Rachel said calmly.

"What do you mean hidden?" I asked, unconvincingly playing along with the idea my Dad was a god.

"Most of us get found by another half-blood or satyr before we turn 13 to 14." Ryan said. "That's when you become more 'scented' to monsters and if you aren't found you usually… well… die."

"What Ryan is trying to say is that for a 17 year old to avoid monsters for an extra 3 years hasn't happened for decades. The only possible explanation for your case is that your godly parent is protecting you and that itself is very rare."

"So you came to find me and what, save me from these monsters?" I asked looking at Ryan.

"Pretty much, we always had our suspicions about you being a half-blood but over the last couple of months your, 'scent', has been increasing like your father wanted you to be found, and here we are."

I just nodded taking this all in, as much as I tried to deny it, the evidence was against me. My ADHD and my dyslexia was more than just a coincidence, Rachel said it was a natural half-blood trait and if that wasn't a clear indicator, I was able to read ancient Greek with ease, which was strange. That thought led to my next question.

"Why Greeks?" I asked

"What do you mean?" asked Rachel who seemed unready for the question.

"Why the Greek gods?" I said rephrasing the sentence.

Ryan and Rachel looked at each other and back at me.

"I don't actually know how to answer that, it just is. The better question to ask is why not. That's kind of like asking the meaning of life or the reason for death, no one really knows..." Said Rachel, obviously getting a bit carried away all her analogies. "What I do know however is that every century or so the Greek gods pick the strongest nation in the world as their safe haven."

"So I'm guessing America then?"

"Correct, and what is our most well-known feature in America?" She asks.

My eyes drift past Rachel to the picture I saw before hanging behind her on the wall.

"The Empire State Building." I say confidently.

"Correct again. This is where the gods live; at the 600th floor of the Empire State Building is Mount Olympus." Responded Rachel who seemed to be happy I was starting to get the flow of this America/Greek civilisation thing.

"To answer the question you asked before." She continued. "Try not to think of the Greek gods as _Greek _gods, just gods in general. The only real reason why they are called Greek gods is that's where they originated, honestly they are just gods in general and not limited to a single place or time. Like I said, they just are." Before Rachel could get too proud with her answer Ryan cut in.

"What we were trying to say before, was that you are no longer safe until we get you out of here." Ryan said sternly.

Then without warning Rachel stiffened up and her eyes started to glow an unnatural green, not like Ryan's but more misty and dark. It felt as if time had slowed down and her hair wrapped in the air like fire and out of her mouth spew green smoke that filled the room.

"Here we go again" said Ryan, his fingers purple around the arms of his chair and seemed to brace himself for what was about to come next.

Then Rachel started to speak with a slithery echo.

_"The trickster hero shall rise again, and through his wrath he'll fight for flames. Unless the hero of death stops his reign, eternal darkness will follow for the rest of days. Where his loyalties lie none shall say but by his hand ten be slain, and on the final day of dark the one he loves shall light the spark. With five heroes sailing to the end, two return with treasures for man. So hurry hero to the shadows, for what you find shall show not what you seek, but danger of what you must defeat." _

The voice faded out and Rachel collapsed onto one knee. Ryan got up to help her but she pushed him back into his chair and mumbled that she'd be fine. After few seconds Ryan was once again the first to speak and his words where slightly beyond the obvious.

"That did not sound good."

Rachel sighed getting back up then looking over to Ryan. "A new prophecy, you need to get him to Chiron, he can explain this better than me."

He closed his eyes as if gaining a grip on the situation then nodded and stood up.

"C'mon, we'll get you to Chiron then." He said already packing his bag up, looking at me. "We can to take the ferry; it's only about 10 blocks from here."

"Hey, what was that all about, the green stuff and the voice?" I said getting up from my seat pointing at Rachel. Whatever had just happened must have been bad because Ryan still looked like he'd seen a ghost and Rachel was still pale, either from the experience or what she had said because Ryan was right, it did not sound good.

Rachel took a sip from her coffee and looked at me, her eyes strained. "Now you know who you really are you are in more danger and with two demi-gods roaming the streets, you must move fast." She turned to the painting of the boy with his arm around the blond-headed girl. "Take care of him Ryan; he's more important that you think."

He nodded and without letting me say a word he started pulling me out the door.

"What about the dream?" I asked squeezed out while being pulled down the hallway.

"What dream?!" Rachel shouted, turning a deadly white.

Ryan froze and turned. "Oh gods, I almost forgot-"

Before Ryan could finish his sentence the back wall to the house exploded into black and blue flames and the wall was ripped into pieces, if it wasn't for Ryan who tackled me to the ground I would have been shredded by the flying wood. A huge gust of cold wind and snow covered the room dropping the temperature to negative and spraying drops of freezing water over my body.

We hit the floorboards hard and pain rushed through my body as I tumbled across the floor. Through blurred vision I looked over to Ryan who looked worse conditioned than I, sprawled across the ground unconscious. I rolled over quickly to see what had broken the wall and where the wall used to be was now a figure, it was clearly about 8ft and was dressed in black robes that floated seamlessly in the air, the thing was human in figure but no piece of skin could be seen, even its face was covered in the floating cloth. I must have hit my head harder that I thought because where his feet should have been… there were none, it was hovering.

The figure moved effortlessly around the room, as if observing the destruction it had just caused. The figure floated around the area stoping at objects and then floating over, moving right next to Ryan. I realised what it was doing, it was unable to see so it was somehow finding its environment another way other way, maybe touch. I didn't have time to contemplate how I knew that but one thing was sure, it wasn't here for good reasons. I slowly edged myself over to Ryan, it must have been deaf as well because Ryan kept making loud groaning sounds but the figure kept searching. When I got to him the figure was only a few feet away and Ryan was starting to wake up.

"What happened?" he whispered.

"I don't know, we need to leave now." I responded trying to push the urgency on him.

"Where's Rachel?" He asked.

Guilt ran over me, I hadn't seen her after the explosion and she _was _standing right next to the now-missing wall. I couldn't believe I had just forgotten about her, I hoped she was still alive but it was unlikely. We had to worry about ourselves now, we had to leave.

I started pulling him up, until he saw the figure.

"Wraith." He said, freezing on the spot as the colour drained from his face.

"I know. We need to leave quickly. We don't have much of a choice, can you walk?"

He shook his head. "I-I think my leg is broken." he stuttered.

He was right, his leg did not look good at all, and it was twisted in an unnatural way that made me feel somewhat queasy.

I had to think quickly. I wrapped Ryan's arm around my shoulder and slowly pulled so he was sitting. He was surprisingly strong willed and held back most of his pain but he looked as if he might pass out and his eyes started to slowly close and he slumped over.

Suddenly the wraith turned strait at us and charged. Instinct took over and I threw Ryan over my shoulder moving him out of the way, quickly I stood to face the monster and braced myself for impact. As the Wraith hit me, its cloth like tendrils wrapped around my body until they covered me fully and I was then to experience a pain that cannot be put into words. The agony flowed over my body, my bones felt like slush and then suddenly everything went cold and dark. This lasted only for a few seconds until the pain stoped and I fell back onto the floor. I laid there in shock, the pain had stopped but I could feel tingling vibrations through my body.

As I looked up I saw standing over me was the Wraith and from what I could tell from its subtle inspection, it was just as shocked as me that I was alive. It stood still for a short while, as if considering how to kill the teenager that lay before him. I climbed to my knees but not before the wraith moved in for the kill, the left half of its body shifted like it was made of dust combined then into a large blade, and just as quickly it raised the blade to the side of my jaw. As soon as the blade touched my skin all my hair stood on end and suddenly the temperature dropped even lower, it felt as if the blade was slicing through my skin and I could feel my face parting forming an opening but I dared not move.

He lined up his blade in similar fashion to a golfer would before his target as I felt the blood trickle down my neck from my jaw. I had to make a move, and I tried to regain any strength that I may have had left in my body and I now just had to wait for its move, this had to be timed perfectly. The Wraith brought back is sword for the final strike and as he did I dived under it out of the way. The blade missed me by inches and I slid on the icy floor at least 10 feet before rolling and hitting some rubble across the other side of the room. I thought I had bought myself some time when I got myself back on my feet the Wraith was right in front of me and its blade was facing towards my heart. I knew this was it, I had tried to survive but failed and I was about to die an excruciatingly painful and cold death. I closed my eyes for the impact.

Abruptly there was loud bang that echoed across the hallway and shattered my eardrums, I thought it was the Wraith making impact but I opened my eyes just in time to see the shadowy creature explode into fire and suddenly it changed course to the opening in the wall and kept flying into the distance until the exploding into dust.

I quickly turned to see where the noise came from and what I found was not expected. Standing in front of me was probably the prettiest girl I had ever seen. Her bright blond hair was pulled up into a fancy sort of bun. She was short, at least my shoulder height with a slim athletic body, with blue pearl eyes that seemed to fit her serious outfit. She wore a white army jacket, slim dark jeans, and other than the heavy duty backpack and the revolver in one hand still aimed at my head she seemed pretty normal.

"Friend or foe?" she asked in a serious tone and though her girly voice didn't match the aggression in her words it still gave me a fair scare. For a moment I was surprised by how well she handled her golden revolver, the direct shot to the Wraith wasn't a hard one but even now the large gun didn't so much as tremble in her hands.

I looked over to where the Wraith had exploded into dust and I reached up towards my face feeling the warm open cut it had left on my face.

"Friend, and thanks for saving my life." I said gratefully taking a step towards her offering a handshake.

She took a quick glance at my hand as if determining if this was some sort of trick. "We need to get Ryan out of here." She said lowering her weapon but leaving the handshake go cold.

I awkwardly withdrew my hand from the rejected handshake. "Agreed, there's a ferry just near here. We can take that to the nearest hospital." I said trying to sound confident.

She spun her gun around her pointer finger fluently and it transitioned, turning thinner and thinner until it made a petite golden watch wrapped around her wrist. Normally something like this would surprise me but after my close-to-death experience with the wraith this was at the back of my thought processors.

"No." she said, moving over to Ryan and assessing his leg. "What damaged this was _Death spire;_ it cannot be fixed my any mortal healer." The way she said Death spire was strange and it took me a few seconds to realise that she had just spoken in another language and one that I had understood- Greek.

"Death spire?" I don't think I had ever heard of that before, especially in Greek.

"It's dark magic, a powerful type that gets inside your flesh without causing any type of scarring then it breaks down any type bone tissue. Thankfully I think I know how to fix this, his injury only minor."

"You think?" I asked concerned kneeling down next to Ryan as the girl unpacked her backpack.

"Do you want to do this?" she snapped, pulling a bunch of herbs and flasks out onto the snowy floorboards.

I shifted myself back from her clearly defined space of medical objects and stayed quiet.

"Didn't think so…" she mumbled just loud enough for me to hear.

Grabbing the nearest test-tube she stuffed some reddish herb and some blue glowing liquid from a canteen filling the tube to the top, after stirring the concoction she poured the purple drink between his lips.

Seconds seemed like minutes and the blond girl looked on, patiently waiting.

Ryan's body jumped to life, doubling over and coughing up black soot. The girl rushed over securing Ryan as he threw up the last of the Death Spire. He mumbled something of a thank-you and then passed out again.

"I have only delayed the effects." She said turning to me. "You need to get to my car, carry Ryan; it's the black and silver one."

I rushed strait to Ryan and scooped him up around my shoulders, moving him towards the door and onto the quiet street as the girl packed up her gear. Her car wasn't hard to miss, not only was it the only car in the street, it wasn't a car. It was a four door silver and black military jeep with a machine gun attached to the roof.

I moved Ryan into the back of the jeep lying across both seats. I slid to the passenger seat and waited as the girl; whose name I still did not know; jogged to the vehicle. She jumped the door, through the window, into the driver's seat sliding her bag into one of the many compartments and turned the ignition.

As she did so an electronic female voice spoke from the stereo. "Tactical Automated Driving System Jeep-Series reporting for duty, Freelancer Hayley."

"Your car speaks?" I asked dumfounded. At least now I know her name.

The girl responded to the car, ignoring my comment, "TADS get us to Camp Half-Blood, Half-Blood Hill, Long Island Sound."

"As you wish, activating shadow-travel systems." The jeep responded with whirr's and clanks as it shifted side to side.

"You might want to hang on!" she shouted over the sounds, fastening her seatbelt.

I reached over to the metallic belt and strapped myself in. A blink of an eye and the city landscape and abandoned house was gone, only a blur in the distance but as we went faster and faster, my eyes shut more and more until I was thrown into darkness as the pain in my jaw got stronger and stronger. Maybe that rule about getting into cars with strangers was made for a reason.


End file.
